


Wanted

by SharkGirl



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Accidental Drugging (Love Potion), Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Biromantic Characters, Canon Altean Shifting Abilities, Canon-Typical Violence, Comedy, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, First Kiss, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Good Lotor, Happy Ending, Jealousy, Kissing, Lance (Voltron)-centric, Love Confessions, Love Potion/Spell, M/M, Magic, One-sided Crush Allurance, One-sided Everyone/Lance, Pining, Side Pairing Lotura, Team Korance lol, accidentally in love, implied pining, lots of apologizing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-20
Updated: 2019-08-20
Packaged: 2020-09-18 22:35:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20320630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SharkGirl/pseuds/SharkGirl
Summary: Lance bounced his knee and then crossed his legs under him as he stared at the bottle.Was he supposed to get Allura to drink it? Or should he dump it on her? That seemed rude.“Yeah, just about as rude as forcing someone to fall in love with you,” he quipped sarcastically. Then he shot to his feet, startling the mice. “Nope,” he said. “I can’t do it.”Or, Lance finds an ancient Altean love potion and, even though he decides not to use it, fate (or the space mice) have other plans...





	Wanted

**Author's Note:**

> Hey all! Yes, I know... I said I was writing a different fic (and I still am!) but I got inspired and churned this sucker out in less than two days.  
I'm sorry I've been absent on AO3 as of late. Things IRL have been really crazy. But I'm happy to be writing again~
> 
> This is loosely based on that episode of Buffy where Xander tries to put a love spell on Cordelia and it backfires, making everyone else fall in love with him. And that's where the similarities between that and this fic end, haha.
> 
> When does this take place? I don't know... they're all adults, haha. Roll with it~  
Also, I tagged Good Lotor because he's part of the team. I know he was supposed to be Morally Grey (and he got done dirty) but just go into this knowing he's not secretly behind anything.
> 
> Beta'd by the lovely Jes ♥  
Please enjoy!!

Today’s the day, Lance thought to himself as he navigated his way down one of the long hallways of the castle ship. He was walking with a purpose, his shoulders back and his head held high. He was going to do it. He was finally going to confess to Allura.

He’d had feelings for her for a long time. Heck, since the moment she – most literally – fell into his arms. But as obvious as his goofy flirting attempts had been, he’d never really said it out loud. She probably thought he was just joking or sport-flirting like he did with ‘every alien they came across’ – Keith’s words.

But Lance’s crush was more than that. He’d never felt like this before. Allura wasn’t just another pretty space princess. She was strong and powerful and comforting. He’d never liked someone for this long before.

And if he didn’t tell her how he felt right now, he realized as he approached the door to the auxiliary hangar, he’d completely lose his nerve. It was now or never.

Of course, just as Lance lifted his palm to activate the sliding door, he heard voices. He hesitated, his hand hovering above the sensor. One voice was Allura’s and other was

“Lotor, you never cease to amaze me,” Allura said with a giggle.

“I believe you have it backwards, Princess,” he replied, voice deep and velvety. “You are brilliant. Without your input, I could have never-”

“Oh, hush.” She laughed again. “It was a collaborative effort. Equal input from both parties.”

“As you say, Princess,” Lotor returned with a chuckle. “Though, if I were in a debating mood, I might argue it seventy-thirty, with yours being the greater.”

Lance frowned. Was Lotor using math…to flirt? Did Allura like that? Oh, if that was what Allura was into, Lance had his work cut out for him. But maybe he could ask Pidge for some good pick-up lines…

Did he seriously just let that thought cross his mind? Lance shook his head. Focus.

When Allura spoke again, her voice was softer, deeper. “How did I manage to catch the attention of one of the brightest, sweetest men in the entire universe?”

Lotor gave another low chuckle. “Come now, you have caught the attention of most every being you’ve come across.”

“Flatterer,” she accused him.

“I wouldn’t dare,” Lotor defended. “In fact, I wasn’t sure you were interested, considering how close you and-”

“I told you before,” Allura interrupted. “Lance and I are just friends.”

Just… friends… 

Lance didn’t hear whatever it was she said after that. His pulse was rushing in his ears. Allura didn’t think of him in a romantic way at all.

His legs started moving on their own and before he realized it, he was halfway to the other side of the castle, Allura’s words repeating themselves over and over in his head.

Lance should be grateful, honestly. Lotor had saved him the trouble of confessing and making a fool out of himself. And now Allura would never know.

He slowed to a stop, his shoulders sagging. He’d finally gathered up the courage to tell her and he didn’t even get the chance to fail on his own. It was anticlimactic. And it didn’t sit quite right. But before he had a chance to explore that further, a jovial voice interrupted his thoughts.

“Ah, Lance, my boy!” Coran greeted, popping his head out from a sliding door Lance hadn’t noticed. “Just the man I wanted to see.”

Lance raised his brows, amused and intrigued, if not a little suspicious. “Oh, yeah?”

“Most definitely!” He stepped out, placing one arm behind his back and gesturing to the open door with the other. “Come in, come in.”

Eager for a distraction, Lance acquiesced, allowing the older Altean to usher him into what looked like a storage facility. And an ancient one by the looks of it. There were rows and rows of shelves piled high with dusty bottles and vials.

“What is all this?” Lance asked, running a finger along the edge of a shelf and collecting nearly a handful of dust bunnies.

“The castle’s old alchemist stores,” Coran answered, placing his hands on his hips. “I’d missed it way back during our initial cleaning.” He turned toward Lance, beaming brightly. “Which is why I’m glad I managed to find my favorite helper-”

“All right, all right,” Lance sighed and waved him off before walking toward one of the buckets filled with rags that Coran had undoubtedly set out for them. “I know the drill.” He pretended to roll his eyes, but he couldn’t help the smile that curved his lips.

At least somebody wanted him around. 

As it turned out, the dusting was the easiest part. It was the sorting and tossing of expired potions – the word Lance used because he couldn’t pronounce whatever it was that Coran had called them – that proved difficult.

Actually, Lance was amazed that anything in here was still good after being forgotten for ten thousand years. But Alteans knew their stuff and did magic and all that, so it shouldn’t have been too surprising.

“I think there are only a few more shelves to go,” Coran said, wiping the sweat from his brow with the back of his glove. “Then we can have dinner.” He heaved his bucket over to the last remaining shelves and set it down. “I can’t wait to see what Hunk has in store for us,” he paused, “Even if he did reject my offer to help.”

Coran grumbled a bit more and Lance snickered. “I’m sure it’ll be something delicious,” he said and then cursed when he nearly sent a bottle of blue liquid crashing to the ground. He caught it and released the breath he’d sucked in. “That was a close one.” Lance placed it back on the shelf. “Good thing I’ve got lightning-fast reflexes.”

“Indeed,” Coran agreed with a nod. “Would have been in quite the pickle had that gotten on us.”

“Yeah?” Lance asked as he moved on to the next shelf. “Does it stain?”

Coran barked out a laugh. “If only it were that.” He shook his head. “No, I’m afraid that particular-” word Lance couldn’t pronounce “-causes the subject to become completely infatuated.”

Lance stopped mid-wipe and turned toward Coran. “Infatuated?”

“Quite,” Coran confirmed. “I believe when Number 5 counted it on our inventory, she’d labeled it, ‘Love Potion’.” He snorted. “Such weird names you Earthfolk have for things.”

Love potion, huh? Lance wet his lips. “Hey, uh, Coran?”

“Hmm?” Coran replied, though he was busy tossing out a few bottles of expired green and red something or others.

“Um, hypothetically speaking,” he began, “if one wanted to use this, uh, love potion, how would they go about it?”

“Well, they shouldn’t for one,” Coran answered. “Far too powerful,” he went on to explain. “And I can only imagine how potent it’s become after sitting in storage for all this time.” He stood back up and twisted the end of his mustache thoughtfully. “But I suppose if ‘one wanted to use this’,” he mimicked, “they would need to mix in a sample of their…oh, what did Number 5 call it…Dee-Enn-Aye?”

“Their…DNA?” Lance furrowed his brow.

“Yes, otherwise, the afflicted wouldn’t know their ‘target’, as it were,” Coran said. “Hence if you’d spilled that bottle on us.” He gestured with his chin. “We’d just wander around the castle, infatuated with anyone we saw.”

Lance shouldn’t have considered what he’d just considered. He shouldn’t have even let the thought cross his mind. But he had. And now it wouldn’t go away. If Allura didn’t like him now… maybe if he…

But that was dumb. Stupid. Completely foolish.

“Now,” Coran began with an air of finality. “Let’s take a break for dinner.”

Lance was thinking about that bottle of blue liquid all throughout dinner. He barely replied when Hunk asked how it tasted and didn’t rise to Pidge’s barbs about him daydreaming. He did manage to nod weakly when Shiro asked if he was feeling all right. But Lance was too busy trying to ignore the way Allura and Lotor were making goo-goo eyes at each other across the table.

Just a…friend…

He and Coran didn’t end up finishing their cleaning duties that night, deciding instead to hit the sack early and to complete it after training in the morning. For that, Lance was glad. But that also meant the bottles were unguarded.

And with his fellow paladins fast asleep and Keith away on a Blade mission, there was no one to stop him from just waltzing back into the alchemists’ storage area.

Not a lot of people knew this about Lance, but Keith was about seventy-percent of his impulse control. Something about Keith being able to know what stupid thing Lance was thinking about doing before the idea fully formed in his head.

But Keith wasn’t due back until the morning, so Lance was on his own. 

He really shouldn’t have gone back down there. But here he was, standing in front of the exact shelf, and staring down the blue bottle. He reached for it, but jerked back when something heavy and metallic hit the floor, the loud sound echoing off of the walls.

“W-Who’s there?” Lance turned, wishing he’d brought some kind of Altean flashlight. It was kind of dark in here during the night cycle. But when he caught sight of the perpetrator – or perpetrators, as the case may be – he released a breath. “What are you guys doing down here?”

The mice blinked up at him and wiggled their little noses, causing their whiskers to twitch. Lance smiled and knelt down so he was closer to them.

“Did you follow me?” he asked and the pink one nodded. “But I thought you guys slept in Allura’s bed.” The taller blue one pulled a face and Lance froze. “Did she kick you out?” The yellow one pantomimed an affirmative.

An awful thought occurred to Lance just then. Did Allura send the mice away because she had someone else in mind for their spot beside her in bed? No, that couldn’t be. She and Lotor hadn’t been together that long, had they?

Or… had they been together even longer?

Lance bit his lip. And call him stupid – Keith sure would – but he decided to go through with it. He reached up and grabbed the bottle, the blue liquid sloshing around inside. Then he took a deep breath and popped the cork.

He wasn’t sure when he’d shut his eyes, but he slowly opened them. At least it hadn’t exploded. The last thing he wanted was to be inexplicably attracted to the mice – even if one_ had_ stolen what was supposed to be his and Allura’s first kiss.

“Okay,” he said. “DNA…” Lance figured spitting would be pretty vulgar – and his mouth was so dry, he couldn’t have managed it if he wanted to – so he went for the next item. “I’m sorry, but just know that your death will not be in vain,” he said as he carefully plucked out one of his hairs and dropped it into the bottle.

Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he remembered Pidge lecturing him about the hair on your head already being dead, but he didn’t concentrate on it too hard.

“Now…” Lance re-corked the bottle. “Am I supposed to shake it?” He looked to the mice, one of whom just shrugged – or the mouse equivalent, anyway. “Hmm…” Lance bounced his knee and then crossed his legs under him as he stared at the bottle.

Was he supposed to get Allura to drink it? Or should he dump it on her? That seemed rude.

“Yeah, just about as rude as forcing someone to fall in love with you,” he quipped sarcastically. Then he shot to his feet, startling the mice. “Nope,” he said. “I can’t do it.” He put the bottle back on the shelf. “Even if I still have feelings for Allura, it wouldn’t be right.” He sighed. “If she loves Lotor…who am I to stand in her way?”

The pink mouse scurried over to him, running up his pant leg and up onto his shoulder.

“It’s okay,” he said, giving their head a pat. “I’ll get over her, eventually.” He heaved another sigh. “It’s not like this is the first time I’ve had my heart broken.”

The other mice followed the pink one’s path, each offering their own form of condolences.

“Thanks, guys,” he said with a laugh. “Anyway, I’m going to get to bed. It’s bad enough I’ve missed precious beauty sleep.” He flashed something close to his usual confident smile. “Gotta look my best if Allura is ever going to know what she’s missing.”

He took a step forward, but the mice jumped off his shoulder, landing on the shelf.

“You’re not coming?” he asked and they shook their heads. “Suit yourselves,” he replied. “But don’t stay up too late, okay?” He chuckled and then shoved his hands into his pockets before making the long, long walk back to their sleeping quarters.

Now, unbeknownst to Lance, the four mice had a plan. While they hadn’t been kicked out of Allura’s bed to make room for Lotor – it was actually because they had developed a habit of chewing on her pillow and ends of her hair – they felt bad that their second favorite human – after Hunk, of course – was feeling sad.

And it seemed like that bottle was the answer. It was big and heavy, but maybe if they worked together, they could carry it to him and cheer him up.

Unfortunately, it was even heavier than it looked. And when the mice tried to set it on its side, it fell from the shelf completely, plummeting to the ground and breaking into too many pieces to count. The liquid didn’t spill, but instead evaporated, hanging in the air like blue fog.

Thankfully, it fell right next to one of the castle’s vents, which sucked it up and carried the fog away before the mice had a chance to clean it up themselves. Now, with only a few pieces of glass to tidy, the mice made it look as though nothing had happened.

They’d figure out a way to cheer up the blue paladin in the morning.

Lance awoke to a knock at his door. He groaned into his pillow, angling his body away from the noise. He couldn’t tell time while sleeping, but he was pretty sure there was at least another varga before Shiro started coming around to get them for training – if he didn’t, Hunk, Pidge, and Lance tended to busy themselves elsewhere.

“Lance?” 

He opened his eyes and shot up in bed, his hair a mess and a dried line of drool on his chin. That wasn’t Shiro’s voice.

“Lance, are you there?”

It was Allura’s.

This time she knocked a bit louder. “Lance, please. I need to speak with you.”

“Uh…” Lance blinked and then wiped the drool from his face, thankful that he’d just moisturized the night before and had forgone using his cream mask. “Just a tic!” He scrambled out of bed, nearly tripping when his legs got tangled in his sheets.

His bedhead was atrocious, but he did what he could, checking himself in the mirror three separate times before finally answering the door.

“’Llura, g’mornin’,” he mumbled, tongue-tied. “What, uh…” He wet his lips and swallowed. “What brings you to my humble quarters?”

“Oh, Lance.” She smiled, her entire face brightening. There was a beautiful pink dusting her cheeks and her eyes were shining, almost glowing. Actually, they _were_ glowing, Maybe it was an Altean thing? “I tried to wait until breakfast, but I couldn’t.”

“…yeah…?” Lance awkwardly scratched the back of his head. He wasn’t sure what time it was, but Allura was wearing her nightclothes and the lights in the hallway were still dimmed. “Um, couldn’t wait for…what, exactly?”

Allura laughed so loudly, it startled him. “You, silly!” She stepped closer and placed a hand on Lance’s chest. “I wanted so badly…” She leaned in, her warm breath wafting over Lance’s lips. Wow, she was even prettier up close. “…to tell you…just how much I-” Her nose brushed his and it broke him from his trance.

Was Allura about to kiss him?

“W-Whoa…!” He placed his hands on her shoulders and held her at arm’s length. “Um, are you still asleep or-”

“No.” Allura giggled, blinking up at him with glowing eyes. “Do the people of Earth not kiss with their lips?” She cocked her head to the side. “I’m certain it is something we have in common.”

“U-Uh, w-we, um, we d-do,” Lance stammered. “Are you sure you’re not sleepwalking? Or maybe you got turned around?” He bit his lip.

Something wasn’t right. Even if, by some miracle, Allura felt this way about him, she was acting strange, so unlike herself.

“And,” he continued, not wanting to say the words, but knowing he had to. “Aren’t you and Lotor sort of…dating?”

“Lotor?” Allura blinked again and then pushed forward, easily breaking free from Lance’s hold with her superior strength. “But I want_ you_, Lance,” she purred, resting her hand on his hip, her fingertips brushing the bare skin just above his waistband. “I only want you…”

Lance jumped back and away from the touch as if he’d been burned.

A hundred possibilities raced through his head. The first was that this was not Allura, but an impostor, using Lance’s weakness to get to Voltron. The second was that this _was_ Allura, but she had been put under a spell. The third was interrupted by yet another knock at his door. Odd, since it was wide open.

Lance tore his gaze away from Allura’s wanton expression and spotted his other visitor.

Lotor. 

“Oh, I-” Lance began and Allura took that moment to pounce on him, sending them both sprawling onto his bed. “Lotor, it’s…um… it’s not what it… I can explain!” Lance shouted, trying his best to get Allura off of him, but being unable to overpower her.

Lotor stepped closer and Allura whipped her head toward him. “I got to him first,” she said and then faced Lance, smiling prettily. “Right, Lance?”

“Well played, Princess.” Lotor gave a slow clap as he sauntered over, his eyes glowing in the low light of Lance’s bedroom. “But your quarters are closer.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “You had an unfair advantage.”

“Your legs are longer,” she shot back, pulling just far enough away that Lance could slip out from under her, should he choose. Though, Lance wasn’t sure that was wise. Allura could easily outrun him and he wasn’t sure how Lotor would react, given he just caught Lance in bed with his girlfriend.

“And you could have lengthened yours,” Lotor offered with a raise of his delicate eyebrows. “Now, I think it only fair if we let Lance choose between us, don’t you?”

Between them? Lance frowned, craning his neck to look at Lotor. Really look at him. It was possible that all Alteans’ – or half-Alteans’ – eyes glowed at night. But he felt like he would have noticed that sooner.

No, whatever was going on with Allura was affecting Lotor, too.

“Fine,” Allura said with a pout as she slid the rest of the way off of Lance and the bed, moving to stand between it and Lotor. “But I think I know who he’ll choose,” she challenged haughtily.

“Don’t be so sure, Princess,” Lotor returned with a flash of his sharp, perfectly white teeth. Then he turned his glowing eyes on Lance, pinning him to bed with the intensity of his gaze. “We’re not completely sure of his…preferences…now are we?” He faced her once more and Lance could finally breathe again.

And somehow, on the shakiest, most wobbly legs imaginable, Lance got onto his feet, drawing their attention. “Um…y-yeah, so…” He cleared his throat. What was he supposed to say? ‘You two are sure acting strange, huh?’ Or, ‘I think someone might be controlling you remotely or something.’ That seemed right up Haggar’s alley.

But instead of all that, Lance managed an odd, strangled sort of sound before he took off, tearing out of the room and down the hallway before Lotor or Allura had a chance to stop him.

He needed to get help. To find someone to fix them. He didn’t think they’d hurt him, but he—

Lance came to a screeching halt a half a second too late, smashing his face into Lotor’s chest. He took a staggering step backwards, dazed, but Lotor caught him by the shoulders.

“Now, now, Lance.” Lotor clicked his tongue. “That was a shred rude, just leaving like that.” He gave a slight pout, ducking his head so he and Lance were level. “But I’ll forgive you if you choose me.”

“Cheater!” Allura shrieked from the other end of the hall. “You’re threatening him!”

Lotor sighed and rolled his eyes, drawing back to make eye contact with Allura, his hands still on Lance’s shoulders, holding him in place. “I was simply making an offer, Princess.”

“More like extorting him,” Allura huffed and drew closer. Her hands found Lance’s hips as she pressed herself against his back. She’d made herself taller, so her chin easily rested on the top of his head, level with Lotor’s. “Let Lance choose on his own. After all,” she purred, shrinking back down to her normal size and mouthing at the side of Lance’s neck. “We both know of his feelings for me…”

Lance’s eyes, which must have closed at the feel of Allura’s smooth lips against his pulse point, flew open. They both knew? Which meant whatever was controlling them knew, too. So, the bad guys _were_ using Allura against him to get to Voltron!

Lotor and Allura were full-on arguing now, so Lance took his chance to escape. But this time, instead of trying to out-run the much faster aliens, he ducked into the next room, releasing a breath as the doors slid closed behind him with a ‘whoosh.’

Lance stared at them, waiting to see if Allura and Lotor would follow, but it seemed like he’d lost them for now. But just in case, he pressed his hand against the panel, motioning for them to lock. Satisfied, he took a step back and looked around. Somehow or another, he’d managed to get to the training room.

Well, at least he was safe here.

“Lance?” a breathless voice asked from behind him. And it was then that Lance noticed he wasn’t alone. He turned to see Shiro surrounded by five sparring bots. But they disappeared when the other said, “End training sequence.”

Shiro had his head down as he approached. He reached for his towel to wipe the sweat from his face. He was soaked, his white tank top almost see-though. It looked like he’d been at it for a while.

“Burning the midnight oil, huh?” Lance asked, momentarily forgetting about the fact he was being chased and propositioned.

Shiro laughed into the towel, resting one hand on his knee and using the other to wipe the back of his neck. “Trying to distract myself,” he admitted and then, after a beat, added, “Didn’t think you’d be up yet.”

“Oh, well-” Lance suddenly remembered why he was awake in the first place. “I need your help,” he said. “Allura and Lotor are after me! Well, it’s not like they’re trying to hurt me or anything. I don’t think. But they’re acting really weird and I think it might be-”

“Whoa, Lance, slow down.” Shiro said with another chuckle. Then he finally looked up, eyes glowing softly. Glowing. Just like Lotor’s and Allura’s. “Why don’t you start from the beginning?”

“Um.” Lance swallowed, taking a step back. “Yeah, so, Allura came to my bedroom and said she wanted to confess-”

“She came to your room?” Shiro frowned, gripping his towel tighter. “What did she do?” he asked with narrowed glowing eyes.

“W-Well…” Lance continued to walk backwards as Shiro stalked toward him. “Sh-She was going to k-kiss me, I think and then Lotor-”

“Did she kiss you?” Shiro asked when Lance’s back hit the metal wall.

Lance knew Shiro was taller than him. And bigger. But he’d never looked so intimidating.

“Did,” Shiro began again, his voice deep, dark, “she kiss you?”

“N-No,” Lance answered and then jumped when Shiro’s prosthetic arm slammed against the wall behind him.

Shiro let out a breath, leaning so his sweat-dampened bangs dripped onto Lance’s forehead. “Thank goodness,” he said. He dropped his towel and raised his other hand to gently lift Lance’s chin. “I don’t know what I’d do if she’d tainted your lips.”

Lance froze. Full-on deer-in-the-headlights, unable to move. His eyes were wide as Shiro leaned closer, their lips nearly brushing.

“Mm…Lance,” Shiro breathed. “…May I?”

He didn’t know how to answer. On the one hand, Shiro was his hero and this was Garrison Days Lance’s dream come true. But on the other, Shiro was under some sort of spell or in a trance or something and it wasn’t fair to him.

“W-Wait,” Lance said, lifting both hands and pressing the tips of his fingers against Shiro’s lips, which were surprisingly plush and smooth. Focus. Focus. “Maybe we shouldn’t,” he said and nearly melted at Shiro’s kicked-puppy expression. “I mean, you haven’t even properly confessed!” he managed. “And I’m n-not, uh, ya know, an easy kisser.”

Shiro furrowed his brow and blinked his glowing eyes. He pulled back so speak. “But you’ve kissed so many pretty alien girls,” he said softly, sounding almost…hurt? “Is it…is it because I’m not pretty?” His gaze dropped to his Galran prosthesis, which had fallen away from the wall behind Lance’s head.

“What? No!” Lance shook his head. “Shiro, you’re, like, one of the prettiest people in the whole universe!” he said, probably a bit too loud for how close they were standing. “And even if you weren’t unbelievably attractive, you’re totally impressive! Youngest pilot to fly a mission off-planet, our fearless leader, the Black Paladin of Voltron!” Lance ticked off on his fingers. “You’re the complete package!”

“Then…” Shiro grabbed Lance’s wrist, bringing his hand back toward his mouth and kissing each of his fingertips lovingly. “Why won’t you let me kiss you?”

Lance groaned in frustration. Life just wasn’t fair! Did the enemy know about every one of his past crushes? Allura, sure, everybody knew Lance had the universe’s hugest crush on her. And Shiro, well, it was probably pretty obvious that Lance looked up to him. But Lotor was new.

Still, Lance had to admit, the guy was attractive. All angular features and perfect hair.

How did he manage to have such nice hair? Even fresh out of a helmet. Lance would have to ask Lotor for his secret, but honestly, it was probably just genetics.

“Lance,” Shiro whined, getting his attention.

Right. First Lance had to deal with Shiro. Then he could undo whatever mind-control thing was going on with the others. _Then_ he could ask Lotor about his haircare regimen.

However, before Lance could let Shiro down easily – or somehow sneak away – the doors to the training room were forcibly pushed open. They both turned to see Allura and Lotor tripping over each other to get in.

“I found him first,” Allura growled.

“But I was the one who suggested we look here,” Lotor countered, pushing his hand into her face.

“But I followed his scent!” Allura snapped at one of Lotor’s fingers and the other pulled his hand away.

Scent? Yeah, Lance would have to unpack that later. For now, he would take the distraction to hightail it out of there. And so, with Shiro staring at the two squabbling aliens, Lance bolted. There was another door on the opposite side, but he rarely used it as it led toward the labs – not exactly Lance’s scene.

Thankfully, Lance slipped through without the others noticing – yet – and locked the door. But this time, he pushed a few chairs and a desk in front of it. Lotor and Allura were strong. And if Shiro joined forces with them, they’d be able to break the door down no problem.

And, honestly, Lance shouldn’t have thought that was as hot as he did.

But hey, to each their own. 

Now that he was safe for the moment, Lance took a seat. He needed to figure out what was going on. And why he wasn’t affected. Was everyone? Or was it just those who’d gotten close to Haggar?

“Pidge would be able to figure this out,” he sighed, rubbing his temples.

“You’re right,” a familiar voice said from behind him.

“Pidge!” he cheered, turning around. She was seated behind several holo-screens, their light reflecting off of her glasses. “Boy, am I glad to see you,” he said. “Allura, Lotor, and Shiro have sort of lost it and I was hoping you’d be able to use that big brain of yours to help me fix them.”

Pidge snorted and adjusted her glasses. “Of course, I’ll help.”

Well, that was easy.

“Oh, but you know,” Lance continued as he drew closer, leaning over her shoulder, but unable to read whatever Altean text was streaming across the screens. “We should find Hunk and Coran, too. You know?”

“No!” Pidge snapped, startling him.

Lance blinked. “…no?”

“We don’t need them,” Pidge said, removing her glasses and turning to look up at Lance with glowing eyes. She lifted a hand and touched his cheek. “I can take care of them for you.”

Creepy glowing eyes notwithstanding, that sounded rather murderous. “Hey, Pidge,” Lance began, gaze shooting to her hand on his cheek and back to her face. “You’re not going to, uh, kill them, right?”

“Depends,” she responded and then turned back toward her screens. “Probably not.”

Well, at least mind-controlled Pidge was acting like Pidge. For the most part.

“I’m trying to figure out why they’ve been chasing you,” she said, pointing to a few screens of surveillance footage, each showing Lance is compromising positions with the others.

Lance flushed. “You’ve been watching me?”

“I was waiting for you to wake up,” Pidge answered simply. “But Allura and Lotor didn’t have that kind of control.” She growled low in the back of her throat. “At least Shiro worked off his frustrations while he waited.”

Oh, so that’s what Shiro had meant. Lance blushed again, his face hot. This was both embarrassing and flattering. Still, he needed to get to the bottom of things. At least Possessed-Pidge was helping him.

Actually, maybe they weren’t possessed. Maybe it was a spell, after all.

“I noticed some foreign contaminants entering the castle’s vents late last night,” Pidge explained, gesturing toward a bunch of text Lance couldn’t read. “It looks like it all went straight to our sleeping quarters, but dissipated within seconds of us inhaling it.”

So, it wasn’t a spell, but a poison. “Some sort of chemical warfare?” Lance asked.

“That’s what I thought at first,” Pidge replied, straightening her glasses. “But the origin was right…” She waited for the castle schematics to pop up. “Here.” She pointed toward a room on the ship. “Looks like the old alchemists’ storage facility.”

Uh oh…

“I can bring up the video footage and then we’ll see what happened,” she said, already doing so.

But Lance had a pretty good idea. Which would explain why everyone on the ship was suddenly head-over-heels for him. The only thing was, he hadn’t _actually_ used the Altean ‘Love Potion.’ In fact, he’d put it back on the shelf after changing his mind. So, how…?

“Looks like the mice knocked something over,” Pidge said, pointing toward the screen. “And whatever it was turned into a gas and got sucked up into the ventilation system.”

Well, that explained why Lance hadn’t been affected. It had dissipated before he got to their sleeping quarters. But that also meant that everyone sleeping on the ship was now in love with him. Or, at least, they_ thought_ they were.

“Anyway,” Pidge said, removing her glasses again and tossing them onto the desk. “Now that I’ve solved the mystery, there’s something else I’m curious about.” She spun around in her chair and faced Lance, gripping the front of his nightshirt and yanking him forward.

“Y-Yeah?” Lance stumbled, but caught himself. “And what’s that?” He gulped.

“Whether your lip balm is strawberry or cherry-flavored.”

Lance swallowed again.

“I have a hypothesis,” Pidge said. “But the only true way to know is to taste it myself-”

Thankfully, Pidge wasn’t nearly as strong as Lance’s other suitors, so he managed to pull away on the first try.

“Hey!” she complained, but he was already on the other side of the lab, frantically slamming his palm against the sensor to open the door. And perfect timing, actually, because there was pounding coming from the other door. The one that led back to the training room. Apparently, Allura, Lotor, and Shiro had noticed that Lance had gone missing.

Finally, after his tenth try, the door opened. But when Lance sprinted out, he ran right into his best friend. “Oof!” Lance pinwheeled backwards, but Hunk easily caught him by the front of his shirt, pulling him forward and righting him.

“Careful there, Buddy,” Hunk said with a laugh. “You almost made me drop your snack.”

“My…snack?” Lance looked up and, despite the fact that it was the middle of the night – maybe? – and the fact that he was being pursued by Love Zombies – were they really zombies, though? – the sight that greeted him made his mouth water. “Are those…garlic knots?”

“You got it,” Hunk said proudly, chest puffing out as he lowered the tray. “It took me a few tries to get it right, but-” He smiled, eyes glowing. “I’d do anything for you, Lance.”

Now, those garlic knots looked authentic. Almost as good as Lance’s mother’s – not that he’d admit it and if you told her that, he’d lie – but as delicious as they looked and as tantalizing as they smelled, Lance knew he shouldn’t accept them. Hunk had made them while drugged. It wasn’t right.

Well, maybe one wouldn’t hurt.

“I hope you like them,” Hunk said, picking one up and stuffing it into Lance’s mouth. “And maybe when you’re finished, we can…you know…” Hunk smiled, his cheeks flushing, which made the glow of his eyes all the more prominent.

“Mphmghf,” Lance tried to object, but Hunk had shoved two more into his mouth.

“Eat up,” Hunk encouraged. “You’ll need your strength,” he added with a bite of his lower lip.

What did he mean by that?!

Lance tried to swallow, but there was too much in his mouth. Great, he was going to choke to death on his favorite food while his best friend groped his corpse. Okay, well, maybe Hunk wouldn’t go that far. He was ‘in love’ with the living, breathing Lance, right?

Coming to his senses, Lance spit out the half-chewed garlic knots, taking in a lungful of air.

“Lance…” Hunk said, eyeing the discarded food. “Did you not like them?”

And geez, Lance thought Shiro had perfected the puppy eyes. He had some serious competition.

“It’s not that, Big Guy,” Lance assured him. “I just couldn’t breathe, is all.” He gave Hunk a pat on the arm. “Anyway, I should probably get goi-herrrrgh!”

“Hang in there, Lance!” Hunk shouted, readjusting his hold around Lance’s middle and hoisting him up. “I know the Heimlich!”

“Hhhhnkkk!” he wheezed, but couldn’t get free from the other’s grip. Wow, was he ever strong!

The room was starting to spin, the shadows beginning to blur together as darkness crept in. Maybe choking on garlic knots would have been a better way to go…

“Put him down!” Pidge’s shrill voice cut through the cotton filling Lance’s ears. And, instantly, he was dropped, caught at the last moment in Hunk’s arms. “Are you trying to kill him?!”

“He was choking!” Hunk explained. “I was trying to _save_ him!”

“By squeezing him to death?!” Pidge stomped forward, swatting Hunk’s hands away.

“Hey!” he complained.

“I wasn’t finished with him,” Pidge said matter-of-factly, grabbing Lance’s wrist and jerking him back toward the lab. His vision was still swimming, so he nearly fell, but Shiro caught him this time.

“Neither was I,” Shiro said, pulling Lance against his chest.

“Nor were we!” Allura and Lotor appeared next and Lance prayed that the ground would open up and suck him in. The castle ship was always doing that kind of stuff right? Living metal or whatever it was made of.

“You’re smothering him!” Hunk fussed.

“Oh, that’s rich, coming from you!”

Just then, the castle’s alarm system went off, the siren blaring and red lights flashing. Then there was a robotic message. _‘Unauthorized entry in Hanger 2.’_

“Shouldn’t you check on that, _Princess_?” someone said, Lance couldn’t tell who.

“And let you all have your way with Lance? I think not!”

He really needed to get away. And, as much as it pained him to do so, Lance flailed. He flailed like he’d never flailed before. He caught Hunk in the chin with his elbow and kneed Pidge in the hip. And, he wasn’t sure, but he might have kicked a few shins. But in any case, he was free!

Lance ran as fast as his legs could carry him, making turns every so often, hoping the flashing red light was as disorienting to the others as it was to him. He had no real path in mind, but he found himself in front of the auxiliary hangar. The one that was used for visiting ships. He thought it was called Hanger 2. And he wondered why that sounded familiar.

_‘Unauthorized entry in Hangar 2.’_

Ah, that’s right. 

Well, maybe he could reason with whatever space pirate or invading being that had broken in and fly off with them. Just long enough for Lance to find a cure for his friends.

But when the doors opened, Lance didn’t find the Galra or even an Unilu. Well, technically, he was _half_-Galra.

“Keith!” Lance cheered. “Holy Crow, man, you have no idea how happy I am to see you!” He wrapped his arms around the other and then thought better of it, pulling back just to make sure. “Let me see your eyes.”

“Uh…” Keith blinked. When he’d first entered the hall, his eyebrows had been drawn down in anger and annoyance, but now they shot up to his hairline. “My eyes?”

“They’re not glowing, thank everything,” Lance said, relieved. “I mean, they’ve got that Galra-glow thing going, but nothing-”

“Lance,” Keith interrupted. “Would you mind telling me what’s going on? I tried the comms, but no one answered. I set the alarm off docking in the hangar.” He frowned. “I didn’t see any signs of an attack, so that’s happening?”

“Well…” Lance took a deep breath. “It’s kind of a long story…”

“There he is!” Pidge screamed from the end of the hallway, eyes glowing even brighter than before. “Lance, you stay right there!”

“No, Lance, come to me!” Lotor threw his arms out. “Forget them!”

Lance didn’t hesitate, he grabbed Keith’s arm and started running, half-dragging the other behind him.

“Lance!” Keith shouted, pulling away and keeping pace. “What the _hell_ is going on?!”

They ran until Lance thought they’d lost the others. Only then did he slow down, leaning heavily against the wall as he caught his breath. Keith mirrored him, but recovered quickly.

“Lance,” he hissed. “_Now _would you mind telling me what’s going on?”

“Okay, so…” and Lance launched into the story about the Altean ‘Love Potion’ and the mice accidentally knocking it over and everyone being ‘in love’ with him.

“So, all of this happened because you wanted to go on a date?” Keith deadpanned.

“Not a date!” Lance objected. “Because I wanted Allura to feel the same way about me…” he trailed off, his shoulders sagging. “But I changed my mind. She’s happy with Lotor and, if we were really meant to be, I wouldn’t need to use some ancient magic potion.”

Keith sighed, his hard gaze softening. He even put a comforting hand on Lance’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, Lance,” he said. “I know how you felt about her.”

“Yeah…” Lance placed his hand over Keith’s, giving it a pat. “But you know what? After having her try to seduce me in my room and then chase me all over the castle… I think I might be kind of over my little crush.”

“Giant crush,” Keith corrected, giving Lance’s shoulder a squeeze. “But I’m glad to hear it.”

“And I’m glad you showed up when you did,” Lance admitted. “It was getting so tiresome trying to outrun them.”

“Oh, yeah, how awful!” Keith rolled his eyes. “Everyone’s in love with you.”

“But it’s not real!” Lance stepped back, throwing his arms out. “And it’s not love, either. It’s…creepy. Possessive and…kind of scary.” He chewed on his lower lip. “I just wish I knew how to cure them.”

“Wait,” Keith began. “You said you spilled a bottle in that storage room, right?”

“The mice spilled it, but yes,” Lance answered.

“Then maybe there’s a bottle with the antidote in it?” Keith suggested.

“Keith, I could kiss you!” Lance shouted, pressing the palms of his hands on either side of Keith’s face and squishing his cheeks – which the other did not appreciate, mind you – but then Lance deflated. “But all of the labels are in Altean. I can’t read them.”

“Pidge, Allura, and Lotor probably aren’t going to want to help,” Keith mused, rubbing his chin. “What about Coran?”

“Coran! Why didn’t I think of that?” Lance asked, smacking his forehead.

“Probably because you were too busy trying to avoid your endless line of suitors,” Keith said, crossing his arms over his chest and smirking.

“Laugh it up,” Lance replied. “But you try telling Shiro ‘no’ when he asks to kiss you.” He stuck his tongue out.

“Shiro…asked to kiss you?” Keith lowered his arms, his expression significantly less smug.

“Yeah, and then Pidge wanted to know what my lips tasted like,” Lance went on. “And Allura and Lotor-”

“Okay, I get it,” Keith interrupted, suddenly grouchy. And just when he and Lance were getting along again. “Let’s just go and find Coran.”

As it turned out, the older Altean was not in his sleeping quarters. Which was good. Maybe that meant he hadn’t been affected. And after trying a few other locations – and narrowly avoiding getting caught by the mob of Love Zombies – Keith didn’t like the name and said as much – they managed to find Coran.

And as luck would have it, he was in the alchemists’ storage facility.

“Coran!” Lance called out to him, but lowered his voice when Keith shot a glare his way. He was right. They needed to be careful. Lotor and Allura’s hearing was more sensitive than the others. “_Coran!_” he tried again in a stage whisper.

The older Altean was busy dusting off the last few shelves and appeared not to have heard them. So, after shooting each other wary glances, Lance and Keith made their way over to him.

“I heard you, but I didn’t want to risk alerting the others to your whereabouts,” Coran said without turning toward them. “Seems this batch was extremely potent, indeed.”

At least Coran hadn’t been affected! “Is there a cure?” Lance asked. “An antidote or something?”

“I’ve got it right here,” Coran said, holding up a bottle of white, pearlescent liquid. “But there’s only one left,” he explained and then finally faced them, his eyes glowing brightly. “So, you’ll have to decide which one of us you give it to.”

Keith wrapped a hand around Lance’s wrist, pulling him backwards as he stood between him and Coran, protecting him. “Coran, hand me the antidote,” he said, reaching for it.

“Perhaps if you got everyone back into bed, you could send it through the vents again,” Coran suggested, twirling the end of his mustache. “And then you and I can be together, my boy,” he said. “Imagine! The both of us, traveling the universe together. Quite the twosome.”

“Yeah, I don’t think so,” Keith snarled.

“Oh, don’t be jealous,” Coran tutted. “You may be Voltron’s best fighter when it comes to hand-to-hand, but I’m no slouch.” He reached for the hem of his shirt and struggled to pull it over his head. “I can still best you at fisticuffs! I’m in as good a shape as I was back-” But when Coran finally managed to pull his shirt off, he accidentally dropped the bottle.

Keith dove to catch it, but he was too late. It broke and sent a cloud of shimmering white into the air, which quickly got sucked up into the vents.

“What are the odds that the rest of them gave up their search and went back to their rooms?” Lance asked in a small voice.

“Not good,” Keith replied.

Coran gave a cough and blinked his – thankfully – normal eyes. “Lance? Keith?” He frowned. “What are you doing down here?” He looked around. “What am I doing down here?”

Lance sighed. “You’d better sit down. This could take a bit.”

Once again, Lance told his story. About the potion, the mice, and the glowing eyes. Though, he conveniently left out the part about it being for Allura, specifically. The last thing Lance needed was Coran going all Papa Bear on him.

“Ah, so that’s why the mice looked guilty.” Coran nodded and rubbed his chin. “Well, it seems you’ve gotten yourself into quite the scrape.”

“Is there anything we can do, Coran?” Keith asked. “You said that was the last of the antidote.”

“That, I did,” Coran agreed. “But if it’s the bottle I’m thinking of, the affects should wear off on their own.” He hummed. “Maybe in about twelve vargas.”

“Twelve hours?!” Lance lamented. “I’m going to have to keep running and hiding for twelve hours?”

“Less than that, now,” Coran offered. “And it’ll pass quicker through Altean systems.”

“Still…” Lance ran a hand through his hair. “What a mess.”

“Well, I hope you learned your lesson,” Keith said.

“_Yes_,” Lance spat sarcastically with a roll of his eyes. “_Thank you_, Keith.”

“And since there are three of us now, I think we can take down the others,” Keith continued.

“Take them down?” Coran asked before Lance could.

“I figure we can use their weakness against them,” he said. “Draw them in like rats in a maze,” he paused, looking to the space mice, “No offense.” Keith turned back toward Coran and Lance. “We’ll capture them one by one and keep them trapped until they’re themselves again.”

“And how will we go about doing that?” Coran questioned.

Keith smirked and looked at Lance. “We just have to set out some cheese.”

Despite saying so when Keith asked, Lance was not ‘good with the plan.’ They’d gone over it. It was simple. But Lance still had to do the majority of the work. Keith and Coran would handle locating their targets and assist with the capture, but it was up to Lance to ‘seduce’ them.

“Ugh,” he groaned.

_‘Don’t be a baby,’_ Keith’s voice sounded tinny through Lance’s earpiece. _‘Just do what you claim to do best and flirt with them.’_

“Easy-” Lance began loudly, but then lowered his voice. “Easy for you to say,” he hissed. “You just have to wait and watch.”

_‘Enough bickering, you two,’_ Coran’s voice interrupted. _‘According to my map, Lotor’s getting closer. Lance, do you still have that lipstick I gave you?’_

Lance fished around in his pocket and pulled out the little tube. Apparently, it was laced with some type of super strong sedative. It wasn’t enough to kill anyone – Lance quadruple-checked with Coran – but it would definitely knock them out. Like heck Lance was going to use it, though. What was he, a Bond girl?

“Yeah, I’ve got it,” he replied, but then quickly shoved it back when he caught something whiz by out of the corner of his eye. “Coran, did you see that?” he asked, voice barely above a whisper. But no answer came. Great, they lost their connection. Coran said that might happen down here.

Lance wondered how they were going to go about locating everyone, but Coran said he could find them all no problem with some sort of thermo-whazzit. And while Lance figured each of the blobs on the map would look the same, apparently Galra and Alteans gave off slightly different heat signatures. That made it easy to determine where Lotor and Allura were. Pidge’s was smaller than Hunk’s and Shiro’s. And considering the larger two were in the kitchen and the training room, respectively, that made it easy to tell who was who.

Lotor was in the bowels of the ship. Coran had called them something else, but Lance couldn’t think of a better way to describe where he now stood. Reception was spotty down here, hence Coran’s lack of response. But it made the most sense to capture Lotor first, since he was moving around the most.

Though, right now, Lance felt like he was walking through a real-life scene from Alien. Again, something ran by just outside of his range of vision. He wasn’t called their sharpshooter for nothing, but whatever it was – Lotor – was moving way too fast. And he was honing in on Lance.

_‘Calm down,’_ Keith’s voice, though garbled, reassured him. _‘He won’t hurt you.’_

“And how do you know that?” Lance muttered under his breath.

Just then, without making a sound, Lotor appeared, his long arms snaking around Lance’s middle and hauling him up to his chest. “At last,” he breathed against Lance’s ear before burying his nose in the juncture between Lance’s neck and shoulder. “I apologize for sneaking up on you,” Lotor said, voice muffled. “But Allura kept following me, so I had to throw her off my trail.”

Lance tried to swallow, but choked on his own spit. “H-Hey, it’s cool, my dude,” he replied, voice shaking. Embarrassing as it was, Lotor really had startled him. Still, they had a plan. It was show time. “So, what brings you all the way down here?”

Lotor chuckled against Lance’s skin. “I thought if I got far enough away from the others, I could get you alone,” Lotor admitted. “And look.” Lance could feel his lips curl into a smile. “It’s just the two of us.”

“Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Allura interrupted, catching their attention. “Thought you’d lost me, did you?” She crossed her arms over her chest and closed the distance between them. “Now, kindly take your hands off him.”

All right, now there were two of them. Things weren’t going exactly to plan, but Lance could roll with it. Wasn’t that what he was good at? Adapting to new roles and situations. And flirting. He was damn good at flirting!

“You know,” Lance began, dropping his voice an octave. And Allura and Lotor, whose mouths were open ready to argue, grow silent, their glowing gazes now trained on Lance. “Um…” Lance cleared his throat. “I do have, uh, I have two hands,” he offered weakly.

Ah, yes. Good one, Lancey Lance. Very suave. Absolutely—

“Why hadn’t we thought of that, Darling?” Lotor said, smiling at Allura. “All this time, fighting over Lance, when we could share…”

Wait. Was this seriously working?

“You’re so right, Lotor.” She beamed, pressing close so Lance was sandwiched between them. “That’s why Lance is the brains of this operation, isn’t he?”

Wow, were they ever drugged.

_‘I can’t believe that worked,’_ Keith said incredulously over the comms._ ‘All right, keep them there, Coran and I are coming to you now.’_

“You got it,” Lance said, pretty sure Allura and Lotor were going nowhere fast. So, he waited. And waited. And jumped when one of Lotor’s large hands groped his backside. Wait, scratch that, it was one of Allura’s. Nope, both. Definitely both. “Any time now,” Lance gritted out.

Then, as if on cue, Keith and Coran jumped from the shadows, securing restraints around Lotor and Allura’s wrists and ankles. The two let out surprised and indignant grunts as they fell over, their glowing eyes wide.

“Lance, what?” Allura blinked up at him, eyebrows drawn together.

Lance picked himself up – he’d sort of been knocked over during the whole capture – and made his way to her. “I’m really sorry, Allura,” he said, bending down so they were eyelevel. “I was an idiot and even if it was an accident, it was all my fault.” He brushed some of her hair from her face. “But we’re going to make sure you’re safe until this wears off.” He bit his lip. “And once you’re feeling like yourself, I’ll confess so you can turn me down properly.”

“All right.” Coran cracked his neck and then bulked himself up – Alteans, right? – and now, with his larger size, carrying Lotor and Allura was no problem. “I’ll take them to the storage room. You two go after Pidge.”

“What? You’re not going to help?” Lance gaped.

“I’ll catch up,” Coran replied as he threw Lotor over his shoulder. “Concerned you can’t handle her on your own?”

“Yes!” Lance and Keith said at the same time. “Seriously, Keith? You?”

“She’s wily!” Keith defended. “You’ll just have to keep her busy until Coran can help me cuff her.” And honestly, Lance would argue, but Keith had a point.

“All right.” He took a deep breath. “Let’s do this.”

Pidge was pretty easy to find. Mostly because Coran had told them her location, pointing to her smaller heat signature on the map. Plus, she hadn’t moved for a while. Actually, save for Lotor and Allura, the others hadn’t moved from their respective positions since Lance ran away. Odd.

“Hey there, Pidgey,” Lance greeted as he entered his room. She was sitting cross-legged on his bed, one of the gaming controllers in her hands. But it was only the Start screen that was reflecting off of her glasses.

She’d been waiting for him.

“Welcome back, Lancey Lance,” she replied with a raised eyebrow, her eyes glowing brightly in the dark room. “I thought I’d challenge you to a friendly little game,” she continued. She licked her lips. “Winner gets a kiss.”

Lance thought about the knock-out lipstick in his pocket, but shook his head. He’d drugged his friends enough for one day.

“Oh?” he returned, cocking his head to the side. “Sounds like we win either way.”

Pidge grinned and patted the spot beside her on Lance’s bed.

All right, this was easy enough. All Lance had to do was keep the game going until his backup arrived. Keith was just outside at the end of the hall and Coran wasn’t too far away. He shouldn’t have to—

“I won,” Pidge said. “You know, Lance. If you wanted a kiss that badly, you could have just asked me.”

“W-What?” Lance blinked and focused on the screen where his character now lay with a little ghost rising out of his chest. “How did you-”

“You were staring off into space,” Pidge provided. “It’s almost like you wanted to lose…” she purred, placing on hand on Lance’s knee and giving it a squeeze.

“Best two out of three!” Lance shouted, shooting up to standing. “I want a fair match. N-No distractions,” he said, eying her hand.

Pidge rolled her eyes, but conceded. “Fine.” Then she gave another sly grin. “But I’m going to get that kiss.”

Lance played like he’d never played before. He button-mashed, used every cheat code he could remember Marco teaching him, and – if he was honest – did Pidge dirty. But he kept it going, making sure he gave her enough time to heal before attacking again.

_‘Sorry for the delay,’_ Coran buzzed in his ear. _‘We’re in position.’_

“Yes!” Lance cheered, delivering his final blow.

Pidge pouted, but set her controller to the side. She crawled across Lance’s bed and grabbed his belt loops, pulling him down and easily straddling his lap. “Well, to the victor go the spoils,” she breathed.

Lance craned his neck, trying to dodge, but he only succeeded in knocking them both off of the bed. “Pidge!” he shouted, catching himself before he crushed her. “Are you all right?”

“’m’fine,” she said and then gripped the front of his shirt and yanked him down, smashing their lips together. It wasn’t so much a kiss as it was a knocking of teeth. But when Pidge tried to readjust, Lance reared back.

“Keep her pinned!” Coran shouted as he and Keith ran into the room. And, as expected, Pidge put up a fight. But with the three of them working together, they managed to get her secured.

“Whoa,” Lance said when they were finished. “Did she hiss?”

“She bit me.” Coran lifted his hand. “Twice.”

“I think Coran and I should take her together,” Keith said, narrowly avoiding a double kick to the shins. “You go ahead. Hunk’s in the kitchen.”

“Right,” Lance replied. But first… “Hey, Pidgey.” He ruffled her hair. “I’m sorry about all this. And I really hope that wasn’t your first kiss, because that was absolutely terrible.” She stopped squirming and pouted up at him. “Not your fault!” he added quickly. “It was me. Totally all me.”

“All right, let’s get moving,” Keith said, careful to avoid Pidge’s mouth as he lifted her. “And Lance,” he added just before he and Coran left the room, “try not to kiss Hunk, will you?”

It should be known that the kitchen was not the only place to find Hunk. Sure, the guy loved to cook, but that didn’t mean he was in there twenty-four-seven – or the Altean/Space equivalent. He was handy with repairing the ship and typing code and he was always available for a comforting hug.

But, in this case, Hunk had been in the kitchen for quite some time. And when Lance walked in, his senses assaulted by the smell of burnt garlic and bread, he could kind of figure out why.

Well, that and the amazing amount of garlic knots littered all over the counter.

“Hey, Big Guy,” Lance said with a wave. “Been keeping busy, huh?”

“Lance!” Hunk dropped the tray he was holding. It clattered to the ground. “Oh, and those were the best batch yet.” Hunk frowned down at the mess.

Lance looked around. “Just how many batches did you make?” he questioned. He counted at least thirty. Though, he didn’t think they had enough supplies for that.

“Thirty-two,” Hunk answered. Lance stood corrected. “I just…after you spit out the ones I made for you earlier, I figured there had to be something wrong with them, you know?” He removed his oven mitts and sighed. “But I overcooked those-” he gestured “-and overworked those two.” His shoulders sagged. “They’ll never be good enough.”

Lance’s heart twisted painfully. He’d only spit the garlic knots out because he was choking. But he totally would have kept his windpipe blocked forever if it meant Hunk would never make that face again. “Aww, Buddy…” Lance walked closer and placed a hand on Hunk’s cheek.

Hunk looked at him, eyes still glowing, but soft. “I’m sorry…”

“No, Hunk, man. _I’m_ sorry,” Lance said. “Everything you make is delicious, okay?” he swore. “Don’t ever doubt yourself, all right?” He got onto his tiptoes and pressed their foreheads together. “But more than all that, I’m sorry you’re stuck like this.”

“Stuck?” Hunk asked, confused. “You mean right here…with you?” He smiled and easily picked Lance up, his large hands nearly meeting as they wrapped around his narrow waist.

“Whoa!” Lance grunted as he was pressed against Hunk’s broad chest.

“I’m sorry my garlic knots weren’t to your liking,” Hunk said, pulling back and setting Lance on the counter. “But maybe there’s something else I could make you?” He reached up and brushed his thumb back and forth over Lance’s bottom lip. “What are you in the mood for?”

Lance stared dumbly up at Hunk. Listen, he knew his best friend was handsome, okay? He was unfairly attractive. Actually, somehow Lance had landed himself on a ship full of hot people. Go figure. But this still wasn’t right. Hunk didn’t really feel this way about him.

“Do you think…maybe…uh…” Lance wet his lips and a shiver ran up his spine as Hunk’s glowing gaze followed the movement. “Brownies!” he yelled, “Can you make brownies?”

“Brownies?” Hunk raised a thick eyebrow. Then he lowered his lids and leaned closer, his voice husky. “I was actually thinking of something else…” he breathed. “Something just as sweet…”

“Brownies, yep!” Lance dodged his kiss. “I could really go for some brownies right now. Can’t make-out on an empty stomach!” he added.

Hunk chuckled. “I guess you’re right.” And then he went to work, gathering ingredients while Lance remained on the counter.

Lance turned his head, whispering into his mic. “You guys close?”

_‘Almost there,’_ Keith replied. _‘Pidge put up a hell of a fight.’_

“I don’t doubt it,” Lance snorted.

“Lance?” Hunk turned toward him. “Who are you talking to?” His face darkened. “It not Pidge, is it?”

“What?” Lance blinked. “No! No-no-no!” He forced out a laugh. “I was talking to my…uh, stomach! Yeah. Getting it ready for those delicious brownies.”

“Because if she’s trying to steal you from me…” Hunk growled, baring his teeth. He looked unlike himself, almost…animalistic. Actually, now that Lance thought about it, Pidge had started to look the same way.

It seemed like the effects of the potion got worse before they got better.

“Who could possibly steal me from you?” Lance offered. “No one can compete with you, Buddy,” he promised. “You’re the only one for me.”

Hunk let out a breath, his features softening. “Oh, Lance…” He leaned forward, pinning Lance to the counter. “I’m so glad you feel that way.” Hunk placed his hands on Lance’s knees, spreading them and nestling himself between them. “And maybe, if you don’t mind…the brownies could wait?”

“Yeah, it’s all going to have to wait,” Keith said.

“Keith?” Hunk turned toward him and then back at Lance. Then he looked between them again. “Oh, _I_ see.”

“No, Hunk! It’s not what you-” but it was too late. Hunk had rounded on Keith, grabbing every cooking utensil and hurling them his way.

“You’re not going to take him from me,” Hunk growled, flinging a sheet pan. Keith easily ducked, but it nearly hit Coran.

“It’s what I feared!” Coran cried, dodging another pan. “The effects are getting stronger.”

“You think?!” Keith replied sarcastically and caught a whisk before throwing it over his shoulder. “We have to get closer so we can cuff him,” he said.

Lance wasn’t sure how to help, but he had an idea. He hopped off of the counter and threw himself in front of Keith and Coran. He caught a spatula to the cheek, but thankfully it was soft and only stung a bit.

“Lance, no!” Hunk gasped, dropping a mixing bowl and running over to him. “No, baby, no…” He lifted a large hand and cupped Lance’s injured cheek. “I’m so sorry…” Hunk wrapped his arms around him and Lance allowed it, gently patting his back.

“I’m sorry, too, Buddy.” He gave a squeeze and held him as best he could while Coran and Keith restrained him. Lance expected Hunk to put up more of a fight, but he slumped forward. “We’ll get you back to normal. You just have to wait a little bit, okay?” Lance hugged Hunk one last time before Coran picked him up and took him away.

Keith was still catching his breath, sweat and a light dusting of flour covering his face. He turned toward Lance. “Just Shiro.”

“Just Shiro.” Lance nodded.

Shiro was the only one left. Everyone else was safely restrained – mildly sedated – and stowed away in the storage facility. Their fearless leader had been in the training room this entire time. Lance knew from before that Shiro had been working off his frustration. So, hopefully that meant he’d be easier to deal with.

But something in the back of his mind told him that wouldn’t be the case. Especially since everyone’s ‘symptoms’ had been getting worse.

“I say we just go in together,” Keith said to Lance. “He won’t want to hurt you and I don’t think he’ll hurt me.” He took a deep breath. “Coran, you wait out here in case we need back up.”

“You’ve got it.”

“And what should I do?” Lance asked. “Won’t it look suspicious if we just waltz on in? I mean, Shiro’s going to know something’s up.”

“You just distract him,” Keith said. “I’ll take care of the rest.”

Lance frowned. He’d been doing a lot of distracting during this ‘mission.’ He was the one who’d gotten everybody into this mess. He wanted to be more than just the bait. However, before he got a chance to vocalize that, something flew very close to the doors and slammed into the wall just inside of the training room. The crash was followed by a loud, enraged roar.

Okay, so maybe even being a distraction would prove difficult in this case.

“The others are sleeping it off, but Shiro sounds like he’s at the height of it,” Coran explained. “Perhaps we should sedate him as well, before we try to capture him?”

But that didn’t sit well with Lance. “Like when he was held prisoner?” He shook his head. “No, we can’t do that to him.”

“Lance is right,” Keith agreed, placing a hand on his shoulder and giving it a squeeze.

“I hadn’t thought of that,” Coran admitted. “I would never want Shiro to feel that way again. I just didn’t want to see either of you get hurt.”

“We know that.” Lance offered him a smile. “But it looks like we’re going to have to beat him the old-fashioned way.” He turned toward Keith. “He’s been fighting those bots for a while. Think he’s tired himself out yet?”

“Not even a little,” Keith replied. Another roar, louder and more animalistic, came from the training room. “I think it’s making him even more frustrated.”

“You know, if things were different, the idea of a sweaty, frustrated Shiro fighting robots for me would be kinda hot,” Lance confessed. He expected Keith to roll his eyes or make some sort of sarcastic remark. But what Lance didn’t expect was for Keith to grab the collar of Lance’s shirt and pull him close.

“It _had_ to be you,” he groaned before pressing their lips together. This kiss was nothing like the painful one with Pidge. It was fierce and warm and over far too quickly for Lance’s liking.

His eyelids fluttered open. “…Keith…what?”

“Everyone else got to kiss you,” Keith replied. “I just wanted to get mine in before Shiro.” He gave a self-depreciating chuckle. “I can’t compete with that.”

Lance looked at Keith. _Really _looked at him. Who was this grizzled Blade member? He was no longer Lance’s ‘rival’ who flew off the handle with barely a moment’s notice. In fact, over their years together in space, Lance and Keith had stopped fighting and become close. Really close.

This close?

“Everyone else didn’t get to kiss me,” Lance said softly, earning a surprised expression from Keith. “And with Pidge…it was just…it was an accident and really wasn’t a kiss at all.” He checked to make sure Keith’s eyes weren’t glowing and then continued. “Keith, do you…_like_ me?”

Keith’s face flushed a lovely shade of red and he closed his eyes, inhaling deeply through his nose before nodding.

Lance was flabbergasted. Keith…liked him? Keith? Seriously? But Keith had never said anything! “For how long?”

“_Lance_…” Keith moaned. “Can we just go in there and get this over with?”

“Oh, so you’d rather fight a love-potion roid-raging Shiro than talk to me about your feelings?” Lance crossed his arms over his chest. “Seriously?”

Another roar erupted from inside the training room before Keith could respond.

“Fine,” Lance said. “But don’t go thinking this is over, Mister.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Keith replied, face still pink to his ears. “We’ll talk later.”

They turned to see Coran smiling at them, almost dreamily. “I was wondering when Keith would confess,” he said. “I’ll admit the timing wasn’t ideal, but it was romantic none-the-less.”

Lance gaped. “Wait…_Coran_ knew you liked me?”

“Oh, everyone knew,” Coran supplied. “It was as obvious as your colossal crush on Allura,” he said and then his face grew serious. “Which I’d been meaning to confront you about-”

“Time to fight Shiro!” Lance shouted and opened the training room doors.

It might have been foolish to go rushing in like that. But instead of getting body-slammed by a flying sparring bot, Lance was greeted by an amazingly wide smile and an excited pair of glowing eyes.

“Lance,” Shiro said, shoulders relaxing as he tossed the deactivated bot to the side.

Whoa, did it have a _bite_ taken out of it?

“I was hoping you’d come.” Shiro wiped the sweat from his brow and walked closer, his expression soft and open. “We all agreed we’d let you be the one to choose.” He reached forward and tucked a stray hair of Lance’s behind his ear. “I was beginning to get worried, but…” Shiro ducked his head, a soft pink flush spreading across his cheeks. “Is it too much to hope that this means you’ve chosen me?”

Lance swallowed. This was going to be the hardest yet. Mostly because, even though he was completely over it now, he’d had the biggest crush on Shiro back at the Garrison. Maybe not as ‘colossal’ as his crush on Allura had been… but even now, he found the guy super attractive. All sweaty and out of breath, muscles bulging-

Keith cleared his throat from behind him, catching his attention.

“Right,” Lance said, fixing his gaze on Shiro’s glowing eyes. “I know you think you want me right now.” He placed a hand on Shiro’s bicep and, wow, okay, that was some serious definition he had there. Wait, focus, Lance. Focus! “But this is all a mistake.”

“A mistake?” Shiro blinked and drew back, hurt flashing across his face. “So, I was right.” He pinched his brows together and frowned. “You haven’t chosen me.”

“Shiro-” Lance stepped forward, but Keith stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

“You’re under the influence of a type of poison,” Keith said to Shiro. “It won’t kill you, but it’s very strong.”

“Poison?” Shiro gave a confused little chuckle. “Keith, what are you…” but he trailed off, his glowing gaze falling to Keith’s hand, where it was settled on Lance’s shoulder. He looked up then, that same hurt expression flickering over his features before it was replaced by dark, cold fury. “So, it’s like that, is it?”

Lance tried to stop it before it began. But he was a fool to think he could match – let alone beat – Keith’s or Shiro’s speed when it came to hand-to-hand. And so, Lance found himself roughly shoved to the side before Shiro came crashing down on Keith, his Galran prosthesis activated and trying to melt its way through Keith’s Marmoran blade.

“Shiro, no!” Lance called, scrambling back onto his feet. “Listen to me-”

“He won’t listen to reason,” Keith grunted out, pushing Shiro off of him and dodging another attack. “He’s too far gone.”

As if proving his point, Shiro growled, “Lance is mine!” He took another swing at Keith, his movements wild, but somehow controlled. Deadly. “If you want him, you’re going to have to kill me.”

“And it looks like Shiro’s feeling the full effects,” Coran panted as he rushed over beside Lance. “I think he might break through the cuffs if we use them,” he admitted, looking up toward where Keith and Shiro were fighting. They were both aggressively blocking, but it was only Shiro who attacked. Keith was playing defense, not wanting to hurt Shiro.

“We’ve got to stop him,” Lance said, wincing as Keith cried out after Shiro’s arm singed his shoulder. “Before someone gets seriously hurt.”

“Without the antidote, I’m not sure what we can do,” Coran confessed. “We may have to let it run its course.”

“But Keith could be dead by then!” Lance grit his teeth. After spending an entire day being chased by people who only _thought_ they loved him. He wasn’t about to lose the one person who actually did.

Well, Keith hadn’t_ said_ love. But he liked Lance and, well, Lance wanted to talk more about that. After all, Keith was one of his best friends and most trusted team members.

He had to do something.

Before he had a chance to think better of it, Lance charged forward, using the split second that Keith and Shiro broke apart to shove himself between them. “Shiro, stop!” he screamed, throwing his arms out and blocking Keith.

Shiro paused mid-growl, his body coming to a complete halt. He deactivated his arm, but Lance could still feel its warmth from where it was hovering just above his head, frozen mid-strike. Shiro dropped to his knees, both arms wrapping around Lance’s legs as he buried his face in the front of Lance’s shirt.

“Lance…” he wheezed. “I almost…you could have…”

“But you didn’t,” Lance said. “And I didn’t.” He smiled, combing his fingers through Shiro’s hair in a soothing fashion. “I know you don’t believe us, but you really are suffering from the effects of a Love Potion.”

Shiro gave a watery chuckle. “A love potion, Lance?” He almost sounded like himself again. But when he pulled back, his eyes were still glowing. “So, none of these feelings I have are real?”

“Well, you might actually be attracted to me-”

“_Lance_,” Keith reprimanded.

“Okay, okay.” Lance raised his hands in surrender. “It’s all because I messed with some ancient blue Altean juice.” He sighed. “I’m really sorry.”

“I think I understand.” Shiro rubbed his temples. “But why?”

“It’s a long story,” Lance admitted.

“For now,” Coran stepped forward, holding out the restraints. “I know it’s not the most comfortable, but we’ve got to keep you and the others contained until the effects wear off completely.”

Shiro looked around the room and winced. There was a mess of training bots that hadn’t yet disappeared and scorch marks all over the walls and doors. “I think that might be for the best.” Shiro stood up and offered his wrists. “And…’others’?”

“It’s a _very_ long story,” Lance groaned. “But for now, let’s get you to the storage room.”

“We can give you something you help you sleep, if you like,” Coran offered.

“Actually,” Shiro said, kicking a stray bot head out of their path. “That might be nice.”

Once everyone was secured in the storage room – Coran volunteering to stand guard – Lance and Keith walked out into the hallway, the latter slumping against the wall and gripping his shoulder.

“Well, that could have gone better,” he hissed at the end. “But quick thinking back there. You really saved my ass.”

“Me?” Lance raised his brows. “You were seriously going to fight Shiro for me.” His cheeks burned and he cleared his throat. “That was super cool, man.”

“Super cool?” Keith raised a brow.

“And…kind of romantic…” Lance puckered his lips and leaned against the wall beside Keith. “I can take a look at that shoulder for you,” he offered. “I mean, you got hurt helping me, after all.”

Keith blinked, but nodded. “Thanks.” He slid down the wall until he was seated. Lance kneeled beside him and took out the little first aid kit he’d picked up before leaving the storage room. “You planned this?” Keith asked.

“_No_, cuz I was _totally_ going to let you get Gang Green or sepsis or something.”

“It’s gangrene and I’m pretty sure I—OWW!” Keith growled when Lance put the Altean equivalent of hydrogen peroxide on his abrasion.

“Oh, hush, you big baby,” Lance said before blowing on the wound. “Better?”

“Yeah, actually.” Keith let out a breath. “Stings like a bitch.”

“That’s how you know it’s working,” Lance replied and then went about wrapping it lightly with gauze. “I…wanted to thank you,” Lance said as he worked. “Not only for fighting so valiantly for me,” he teased, “but,” he grew serious, “For helping me. You didn’t have to do that.”

“Well, I wasn’t going to sit around while you were chased by Love Zombies,” Keith snorted.

“Ha! I knew you liked the name,” Lance countered. “But I guess that would be pretty hard.” He bit his lip. “You know…watching the person you like with someone else.” He finished the wrapping and sat down beside Keith. “So, me, huh?”

“Yep, you,” Keith replied. “Don’t ask me why.”

“Oh, be still my heart,” Lance said sarcastically.

“You just kind of grew on me,” Keith went on. “First you were that cute kid at school. Then you were that annoying cargo pilot. Then we both ended up on a giant, sentient blue lion hurdling through space.” Keith shrugged. “And the rest is history.”

Lance was staring at Keith with wide eyes, his mouth agape. And it seemed it was then that Keith realized what he’d let slip out.

“What I meant was-”

“So, you liked me back then?” Lance asked and then gave a scandalized gasp. “And you pretended not to remember who I was!”

“Lance…”

“Oh, no. If you think I’m about to let this go, you’ve got another thing com-mmph-” Lance was cut off when Keith pressed their lips together. He would have objected, but damn if Keith wasn’t a good kisser. Plus, he sort of liked this. Kissing someone who liked him.

Okay, Lance liked it a _lot_.

“You know,” Lance mumbled against Keith’s lips. “I could get used to this.”

“Yeah?” Keith asked, drawing back and looking at Lance with hooded eyes.

“Mhm,” Lance replied. “And, I know you’ve liked me for a long time. And I mean a _really _long time-”

“Lance…”

“-but if you’re willing to wait for my feelings to catch up with yours,” Lance breathed. “I’d really like to see where this goes.”

“Well.” Keith lifted his hand to tug on the hair just above the nape of Lance’s neck. “You always were a bit behind the curve, huh?”

“Wow, you really know how to sweet-talk a guy,” Lance glowered at him. “Oh, Keith!” he said melodramatically, throwing a hand across his forehead. “Take me now!”

“I hate to interrupt this intimate moment,” Coran said, stepping out into the hall. “But Allura and Lotor have woken up and are back to normal. Shouldn’t be long until the others come to.”

“Thanks, Coran,” Lance said, his face still a bit hot from being caught, even if he was just pretending. A quick glance proved that Keith, too, was blushing. He cleared his throat and stood up.

“You’re going in?” Keith asked from his spot on the floor.

“Yeah,” Lance said, taking a deep breath and squaring his shoulders. “I’ve got a lot of apologies to make.” He slouched back down and rubbed the back of his neck. “I just hope they’ll forgive me.”

“I’m sure they will,” Keith reassured him as he stood up. He patted Lance’s shoulder and then let his fingers trail down Lance’s back, which sent delightful little sparks across Lance’s skin. “And if you want some backup…” He let the question hang, his hand hovering near Lance’s.

“Thanks,” Lance said, taking Keith’s hand firmly in his and lacing their fingers. “I’d like that.”

Keith smiled, softer than Lance had ever seen before. But the smile was quickly replaced by an expression Lance couldn’t quite define. “But if any of them so much as _thinks_ of trying to kiss you again…”

Oh, so that was it.

“Keith, I told you, they didn’t-” But Keith was laughing and Lance realized he’d been tricked. “Okay, so that’s how this relationship is going to be, huh?”

“Couldn’t resist.”

“Hmm.” Lance put a finger to his chin. “Well, maybe that’s how I’ll apologize. A kiss makes everything better, right, Keith?”

Keith pulled his hand from Lance’s and wrapped a possessive arm around his waist, his fingers digging into Lance’s hip. “Don’t you dare.”

“Teasing goes both ways, Keithy-boy.” Lance beamed.

Yeah, this was new. It wasn’t what Lance had been expecting, but it was nice. It felt good to be wanted. _Really_ wanted, that is. And Lance was surprised and delighted to find that he really, _really_ liked being wanted by Keith.

Hmm…go figure.

Anyway, he’d have to thank the space mice after he finished apologizing to his team. After all, he never would have gotten this far without them. But he’d definitely have to rethink allowing them around any ancient Altean potions.

**Author's Note:**

> Aww, dem boys~
> 
> I hope you all enjoyed it! And that I wasn't too rusty, haha.  
As always, let me know what you think in the comments and feel free to hmu on Twitter @bySharkGirl (I'm still on tumblr @Bleucheesy, but I haven't posted in ages)


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